1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a photographing apparatus and method by which an overall photographing time is divided into a plurality of unit photographing times so as to sequentially perform a plurality of unit photographing operations and some unit images created by sequentially performing the unit photographing operations are summed up so that photographing can be performed with improved exposure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Exposure is an operation of exposing an image pickup unit or film to a quantity of light that is appropriate for photosensitization of the image pickup unit or a film. Generally, correct exposure can be achieved by properly adjusting an aperture and a shutter and by properly controlling ISO film sensitivity. When photographing is performed using a photographing device such as a digital camera, photographing conditions such as shutter speed, a diaphragm value, sensitivity, etc., are automatically determined or are input by a user.
When photographing is performed after exposure conditions for photographing are automatically determined or manually input by a user, exposure may not be properly performed and a defective photo may be obtained. In a case when the exposure state of a captured image is not good, a function of subsequently correcting the captured image by using a gamma curve after photographing the exposure state of the captured image may be used. However, such subsequent image correction is used to supplement an image that has already been created by photographing. Thus, gamma curve correction is not sufficient to satisfy desires of users who want to capture an image having a good exposure state.
Another solution that is sometimes employed is using a bracketing function. The bracketing function obtains images of a subject under various exposure conditions by performing multiple photographing operations according to various exposure conditions. The user may then select a proper image from among the images captured by the bracketing function. However, the images are sequentially captured using the bracketing function at time intervals and thus, when a scene in which a subject moves quickly is photographed, a user may not photograph at an instant that is appropriate for photographing.
Also, when an unintended subject comes within the field of vision during photographing, both an intended subject and the unintended subject are photographed and thus, photographing needs to be performed again. Accordingly, the user may not photograph at an instant that is appropriate for photographing.